In the “old” NHL, a three-goal lead in the second period and it was good night, Irene. Nowadays, very often it’s Katie bar the door.
The Avalanche found out how fast such a lead can disappear Wednesday night in losing 5-4 to the Nashville Predators at the Pepsi Center. Thanks to a rash of undisciplined penalties – the last a roughing violation on Avs goalie David Aebischer with 7 minutes, 10 seconds left – the Predators stayed unbeaten on the young season, coming back from deficits of 3-0 and 4-3.
Marek Zidlicky’s power-play goal at 13:36 of the third period for Nashville broke a 4-4 tie.
The goal infuriated Aebischer, who took the puck and whipped it against the boards with his glove hand, seconds after he put the Avs a man down with an errant elbow.
“Stupid play by me,” is how Aebischer described his post-goal tantrum. “I didn’t play the way I can play tonight.”
Asked about his roughing call, Aebischer said, “I shouldn’t have done it.”
There were a bunch of things the Avs shouldn’t have done after taking a 3-0 second-period lead on goals by Steve Konowalchuk, Kurt Sauer and Marek Svatos.
The Avs eased off, allowing Nashville to regroup. Before the second period was over, the Avs’ lead was 3-2.
Then, from the 19:20 mark of the second until 12:50 of the third, the Avalanche took six consecutive penalties. Nashville cashed in with three power-play goals, from former Av Paul Kariya, Steve Sullivan and Zidlicky.
“We’ve got to have composure at the end of a game,” Avs coach Joel Quenneville said. “These are big points we let get away.”
One penalty was a mental mistake by defenseman Ossi Vaananen. With the Avs having nearly killed off a penalty to Antti Laaksonen, Vaananen shot the puck into the stands untouched. In the new NHL, that’s delay of game, and Kariya quickly took advantage with an easy tap-in goal to tie it 3-3.
Shortly after Vaananen came out of the box, he was back in for hooking. The Avs killed that one off and took a 4-3 lead at 4:19 on John-Michael Liles’ first goal of the season. But Colorado’s Brett McLean took an interference call at 6:34, and Sullivan one-timed a backdoor pass from Kariya past Aebischer to tie it up. Aebischer’s elbow set the stage for Zidlicky’s winner, a screened wrister to the near post.
“We have to do a better job of staying out of the box,” Avs captain Joe Sakic said. “We were up 3-0 and I thought we had it. You have to keep going. This is the new NHL, and I think it’s exciting. But you have to keep going.”
The Avs had a goal by Svatos disallowed when video judges ruled Konowalchuk had knocked the net off its moorings. That, plus a couple of good saves by Predators goalie Tomas Vokoun – the best being a stack-the-pads job on Sakic in close – kept Nashville in it.
“They kept getting pucks on net, they kept going,” Konowalchuk said. “When we had them 3-0, we let up too much. Give them credit, but we have to bear down better with a lead.”
Said Kariya, who had three points in his return to Denver: “It showed some character that we came back. It was great to get the win.”
Staff writer Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-820-5454 or adater@denverpost.com.
